Police Called In on Banana Investigation at American University

When one thinks of racially-motivated hate crimes, one generally doesn’t think of fruit being involved, except maybe as something to throw, but the leadership at American University in Washington, D.C., thinks otherwise following a recent incident on their campus.

According to The College Fix, a public safety investigation was launched after students found a few bananas hanging from strings tied like nooses in a few spots around campus.

The bananas had words written on them that referenced the predominately black sorority Alpha Kappa Alpha and the internet-famed late gorilla “Harambe,” which were viewed as being directed toward student government president Taylor Dumpson, the first black female to attain the position. She was assuming her new role that day, according to campus media outlet The Eagle.

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The incident prompted the release of a memo from Interim Vice President of Campus Life Fanta Aw, who wrote, “These racist, hateful messages have no place in our community. The safety of our students is paramount. The American University Department of Public Safety is investigating.

The Eagle reported that the bananas had been spotted and reported by students prior to 7 a.m., but Aw’s memo wasn’t released until the afternoon, prompting some to suggest she wasn’t responding to the incident with the appropriate level of urgency.

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Thus Dumpson released a statement of her own via Facebook condemning the act and demanding that the perpetrators be held accountable and punished to the fullest extent permitted by the school’s student code of conduct, which had recently been updated to specifically address “identity-motivated bias.”

“It is disheartening and immensely frustrating that we are still dealing with this issue after recent conversations, dialogues and town halls surrounding race relations on campus,” wrote Dumpson. “But this is exactly why we need to do more than just have conversations but move in a direction towards more tangible solutions to prevent incidents like these from occurring in the future.”

It was entirely unclear how the university could go about preventing similar instances in the future, though one could imagine a campus-wide registry for pieces of fruit and string, or perhaps the requirement of a background check prior to the purchase and use of felt-tip markers.

Perhaps unsurprisingly — though nobody knows exactly who left bananas hanging from nooses around campus or why — many other students and organizations on campus issued solemn virtue-signaling messages of solidarity with Dumpson and the AKA sorority after the terrifying assault on their sensibilities.

Should it turn out that the “racist fruit” was left by a truly racist student or group of students, then the perpetrator(s) should be dealt with accordingly. That said, there has been a rash of heavily-publicized alleged hate crimes and racist incidents on campuses across the country that have turned out to be hoaxes, so we shall have to wait and see what comes of this particular incident.

In the meantime, angry students will march and make outrageous demands while various law enforcement agencies spend valuable time and resources tracking down an alleged racist on campus.

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